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Book Review: Putting Meat on the American Table: Taste, Technology, Transformation – Dr. Roger Horowitz
By Warren Belasco, Professor, University of Maryland Baltimore County
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Putting Meat on the American Table: Taste, Technology, Transformation
Hardcover, 192 pages
The Johns Hopkins University Press
ISBN: 0801882419
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This is an important, unique, splendidly written book. In lucid, accessible prose, Roger offers an excellent introduction to the history of meat production, distribution, and consumption in America. Echoing the pioneering work of Siegfried Giedion (Mechanization Takes Command), the book shows how meat producers have long struggled to subdue and rationalize the inherently "disorderly nature" of livestock for the sake of economic convenience. The convenience impetus also guides modern consumers, who aspire to eat more meat, at lower cost, and with less effort.
To an amazing degree, the meat industry has succeeded in its goal, as more Americans do eat more meat than ever – and the rest of the world hopes to follow. In Roger's narrative we see both the history and future of industrial food – unless, of course, tricky nature gets in the way by reminding us of the nutritional, epidemiological, and environmental consequences of this trend. As the old ecological slogan goes (and as he demonstrates), "Nature bats last."
The book's organization is refreshingly simple. After a straightforward introduction to the scope of US' meat religion, Roger devotes separate chapters to beef, pork, hot dogs, and chicken, before concluding with a fine synthesis of how convenience is the cross-cutting theme in all sections. He is particularly clear and dispassionate in explaining the technological and labor aspects of meat production and distribution. Indeed, in my view, those passages rank among the very best dissections of the animal industry that I've ever read.
Much has been written about meat production, but Roger definitely offers us something new, both in tone and in substance. Meat has long been a subject that invites both moralistic invective and defensive self-interest. While he freely admits that he likes meat, Roger does not let his personal taste and ethics get in the way of an exceptionally objective (and potentially subversive) analysis of the bloodier aspects of food production.
The biological costs of our appetites are openly displayed and weighed. As an experienced historian of technology, he is especially masterful in describing the intersection between technological and marketing imperatives, and as an accomplished labor historian Roger shows an uncommonly fine sensitivity to the dreary details of life on the disassembly line.
Some chapters are especially stunning. While those on beef and pork offer much useful historical background on those central staples, I think the sections on hot dogs and chicken really steal the show, perhaps because these two products are so quintessentially convenient and modern. While the production of cows and pigs has certainly evolved over time, the steaks and chops they produce are fairly "traditional" in form, if not taste. But the hot dog and packaged chicken parts are utterly new products that best suit the prevailing demand for the quick and easy. Also, I think those two chapters are somewhat more balanced in discussing the production-consumption interaction than those on beef and pork, where production seems to get more emphasis.
Given the extreme contentiousness of the meat literature, I'm sure that there will always be readers who feel that their particular interests and agendas are not adequately addressed. Still, food fights aside, I do see a tremendous potential market for this audience – both academic and general. For the former, I think the book will be a useful introductory text for a wide variety of courses in cultural, technological, culinary, and labor history, as well as for students of nutrition, animal production, environmental studies, and business. Scholars will benefit both from the book's valuable background information and from its skillful illustration of what is a very nuanced argument about how industries evolve.
On the whole, I am very excited about this book and will definitely want to use it in my classes on the American food system.
About the Author: Dr. Roger Horowitz
Roger Horowitz is one of the nation's leading authorities on American meat. He is the author of two previous books on the US meat packing history; Roger is Associate Director of the Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society at the Hagley Library, America's leading business history archives. He frequently gives talks on food issues to students and general audiences. Email Roger at rhorowitz@Hagley.org
Warren Belasco is Professor of American Studies at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. He is the author of "Appetite for Change: How the Counterculture Took on the Food Industry" and "Meals to Come: A History of the Future of Food." Warren is Editor of the academic journal, Food, Culture, and Society and co-editor, with Philip Scranton, of Food Nations: Selling Taste in Consumer Societies. For feedback on this review, contact Warren at belasco@umbc.edu
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